Jim Jarmusch's films tend to lean off-centre in the direction of the idiosyncratic.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Dead Don't Die begins with Police Chief Cliff Robertson of Centerville, USA sensing things are not normal because it's 8pm and still bright daylight, while deputy Ronnie Peterson predicts "things will not end well". They are both right.
Due to polar fracking, the world has been shifted off its axis, and the dead have been reanimated. Zombies are coming for dinner and the local residents are on the menu.
Centerville is a small community: Police Chief Robertson, his deputies Mindy and Ronnie, the strange undertaker Zelda Winston, hardware store owner Hank, racist Farmer Frank, convenience store owner Bobby, and Hermit Bob.
Rather than being horrific, The Dead Don't Die is quirky and asks that we accept the humour of the situation. The film becomes an endless cycle of repetition of the theme song, warnings that things won't end well and jokes that, despite being repeated, still make the audience laugh. You expect it to happen and when it does, that is what makes it funny. It's all strangely weird yet appealing at the same time.
The film is Jarmusch's statement about small town America and decline of the American way of life.
'You sense The Dead Don't Die is an in-joke for Jarmusch and the actors with whom he has collaborated...'
Hermit Bob, who lives in the woods and survives on insects and squirrels, epitomises the spirit of self-reliance rather than the overwhelming need to consume goods without regard to the impact it's having on the world in which we live.
Hermit Bob symbolises Jarmusch's view we should stop consuming and discarding because we will end up consuming ourselves.
After all, the slogan for Centerville is "A Nice Place To Live". It becomes ironic when the dead are reanimated and begin eating the citizens.
You sense The Dead Don't Die is an in-joke for Jarmusch and the actors with whom he has collaborated on many films.
Film fanatics will enjoy internal references to the script, the theme song, Star Wars and George Romero's living dead films.
We could dwell on the symbolic meaning of zombies and conduct an in-depth analysis of the film's reflections of contemporary politics and the social situation in the USA.
Or we could simply sum it up as full of deadpan humour. If you're cringing at that pun, then you won't like The Dead Don't Die.
